Wednesday, 8 September 2010

On Wednesday 25th August we met with 3 young people from South Asian community organisation Awaz Utaoh to being a photography project exploring Ramadan.We did several activities exploring what Ramadan means to each of the young people and choosing key themes for them to explore in photographs. Here are some of the words they came up with:

Ramadan or Ramzan is a time for fasting where Muslims of all ages do not eat or drink between the hours of dawn until sunset. It is a spiritual time of prayer and reflection and the young people said that fasting made them feel good and have good intentions towards others. Ramzan is also a time when Muslims give charitably, Zakat, and many of the young people were sending funds to their friends and families in Pakistan to help provide essential supplies to survive the terrible flooding.

The key themes they decided to focus on are:

Eid

The holiday that marks the end of Ramzan.

Chaand Raat

The night before Eid, a great time of celebration where families gather to spot the new moon tghat marks the end of Ramzan and the start of Eid.

It was amazing to speak to the young people about their faith and how it impacts on their lives. We hope that the photo exhibition will give an insight into what it means to be a young Muslim in Bristol. Watch this space for more details over the next few weeks.

The aim of the UNITY project is to promote cultural understanding and to celebrate the diversity that exists across the city. UNITY is about celebrating what’s at the heart of Bristol’s communities and we can only do this by working together with local groups and young people.

UNITY is currently working on a Citizenship Foundation and Mediabox funded project that brings together young refugees/asylum seekers with Bristolian youth to find out more about each other and develop social action projects to improve their community.